New Mexico Football League commissioner Chuck Roberts has seen the league grow exponentially in a brief time.

"This is my third year," he said."When I started, there were six teams.Now, there could be as many as 16 at the start of this season, and there's teams in Arizona, Colorado and Texas putting out feelers and thinking about joining the league in the future."

Roberts and Johnson have worked together in the past, when Johnson helped form the Roswell Railsplitters (now known as the Roswell Invasion).

...

"He's a quality person, and he's a big asset to the whole league," Roberts said of the Roughnecks' coach.